Î22 



EUSSIA IN EUROPE. 



falling from a height of 18 or 20 feet to its lower course between steep sandstone 

 and limestone cliffs. Below the falls and the town of Narva the Narova becomes 

 a sluggish stream, which has often changed its bed within the present geological 

 era. Prevented from direct access to the sea by a double line of dunes over 60 feet 

 high on the east side of the Bay of Narva, it continued its northern course along 

 the valley now followed by the river Luga, A gap opened at some unknown 



period through the dunes en- 

 Fig. 171.— Lake Peu-us. 

 Scale 1 : 1,500,000. 



ables it to reach the coast on 

 the west side of the bay ; but 

 above its present mouth there 

 are many winding channels 

 which, though now dried up, 

 are sufficient proof of its former 

 shifting character. Besides, 

 the Luga and Narva basins are 

 still connected by the Rossona, 

 a branch of the Luga, which 

 trends suddenly westwards, 

 joining the Narva just above 

 its mouth. Although smaller 

 than the Narva_, the E,ossona is 

 much more irregular in its 

 discharges, rising sometimes 

 from 12 to 20 feet in the floods, 

 bringing down large quantities 

 of sand, undermining the build- 

 ings on its banks, and even 

 sweeping away the coffins of a 

 graveyard near its course. 

 Hence, in order to keep a uni- 

 form depth of 10 feet on the 

 bar at the mouth of the Narova, 

 it may be necessary to divert 

 the Rossona through an in- 

 dependent channel to the coast. 

 After the Rossona floods this 

 bar has often scarcely more than o or 6 feet of water, although higher up the 

 Narva is no less than 44 feet deep. The efforts made since 1764 to increase the 

 scour of the Rossona have hitherto failed, so that the Bay of Narva still remains 

 one of the most dangerous roadsteads on the coast, and over twenty vessels have 

 here been wrecked in a single storm. 



The Ilmen, another lake east of the Peipus, with an area of about 400 square 

 miles, is really nothing more than a permanent flooding of the land, caused by a 

 large number of streams all converging at one point, and with an insufficient 



Eo<^G 



•20 Miles. 



